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The End of the Road

This year, two of the most exciting players the NBA has ever witnessed announced their retirement from the league. Tracy “T-Mac” McGrady and Allen “The Answer” Iverson both attempted to make comebacks, but wasn’t satisfied with the roles they were offered. It’s impossible for any player who once dominated the league to comeback and be happy as a benchwarmer. This was the case for both players. Tracy McGrady was on the roster for the San Antonio Spurs, who lost to the Miami Heat in a best of seven series. In that series, T-Mac only appeared in two games for a total of 14 minutes. Let that soak in. This player once led the NBA in scoring in back to back years and was arguably the best player in the NBA at that time. Despite everything (injuries suck), its hard to see a player of his caliber career end in such fashion. Similarly, Allen Iverson also led the NBA in scoring four times, two of them in back to back years. However, in his case Iverson felt that he was better and capable of doing so much more for a franchise. Obviously, most owners didn’t agree with that. Instead of settling, he chose to walk away from playing for good.

It’s sad to see these two players go. If they were still healthy and playing, they would’ve been right there with Kobe Bryant; all three of them in the last chapter of their respective careers, paving the way for the new superstars of today in Lebron James and Kevin Durant. One day in the future, we all will see both Tracy Mcgrady’s and Allen Iverson’s jerseys hanging in the rafters in the arenas of their cities, Orlando and Philadelphia, respectively.

Tracy McGrady

His career was plagued by injuries, but when he was healthy, he was as exciting and dominate as can be. McGrady had it all. From incredible dunks to ankle-breaking crossovers to deep three-point range. Maybe if he didn’t get injured, there wouldn’t be a Kobe Bryant (hmmm). Well, maybe, just maybe.

He’s small guy with a big heart, but he played with so much passion every night. This is the guy who doesn’t like to practice but still got the skills to shake MICHAEL JORDAN out of his shoes. He never backed down from a challenge. He took his team to the championship by himself, but ended up losing to Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers. (Funny how Kobe just finds a way to each post)

Both of these players bought so much excitement to the NBA in the early 90’s until the mid 2000’s. That era of NBA basketball was so much better than today. I hope to see both of these players enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, it’s only right.